Got DairyPure®? It’s the newest milk label out there, just launched Monday by Dean Foods, the largest milk processor and distributor in the U.S.
Already appearing on fresh-milk products in supermarkets and retail stores around the country, DairyPure is the nation’s first national fresh-milk brand.
The Dallas-based company is co-branding its 31 regional fresh-milk labels with the new name, giving DairyPure an instant $2.5 billion value. The new DairyPure label appears on milk products familiar to American consumers, from regional brands like Alta Dena, Meadow Gold and Garelick Farms, to national names like TruMoo and Swiss Premium.
“It’s an exciting time for Dean Foods and for the U.S. dairy industry,” says Greg Schwartz, vice president of marketing for Dean Foods.
Adding the new DairyPure label while retaining regional brands “is the best of both worlds,” he adds.
Dean Foods believes millions of consumers will come to equate the DairyPure label with fresh, nutritious milk that’s shipped from local dairies. Consumers will instantly recognize a milk product that’s backed by Dean Foods’ exclusive “Five-Point Purity Promise,” says Schwartz. That assurance promises that its products are made from milk that has been produced with no artificial growth hormones, tested for antibiotics, continually quality-tested to ensure purity, sourced from cows fed a healthy diet, and cold-shipped from a local dairy.
“We explored 14 different names in our consumer testing,” Schwartz says. “They felt that DairyPure linked closest to the Purity Promise, and it’s the name they liked best.”
Benefitting Dean Foods and the dairy industry
The co-branding effort will benefit the dairy industry as well, adds Schwartz. DairyPure will connect what has historically been a very fragmented market under one national moniker, providing a much-needed advantage for the fresh-milk category. Having one brand means one Universal Product Code, which is expected to help Dean Foods’ supermarket and grocery store customers reduce administrative complexity.
The DairyPure initiative also is expected to boost Dean Foods’ U.S. milk sales and bolster the fluid milk category, which has been lagging for decades. Dean Foods is the nation’s largest direct-to-store distributor of fluid milk. It operates more than 60 dairy processing facilities in the U.S. Across the U.S., the company holds a 10% share of branded white milk, and about 30% of all milk products.
“Dean Foods believes DairyPure will provide us with national media efficiencies we haven’t had before,” Schwartz says. “Now we’ll have national advertising scale.”
Moreover, the national brand “positions us as a prominent marketing partner with national cereal and cookie brands,” he adds. “We see it as a platform for future growth.”
Next month, the DairyPure label will expand beyond fresh milk to half-and-half and cream products.
Schwartz also believes the benefits of DairyPure’s national label will help dairy producers too. “In our pilot testing in New England, we saw share gains using the DairyPure label,” he says. “Anything the branded community can do to attract consumers to the conventional white milk category is a good thing for dairy producers.”
By Catherine Merlo, Dairy Today Western & Online Editor
Source: Dairy Today, AgWeb.com